Director of Library Services, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA,
J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Jul;107(3):291-303. doi: 10.5195/jmla.2019.712. Epub 2019 Jul 1.
This lecture discusses social justice and the role that medical librarians can play in a democratic society. Social justice needs to be central to the mission of medical librarianship and a core value of the profession. Medical librarians must develop a new professional orientation: one that focuses on cultural awareness or cultural consciousness that goes beyond ourselves and our collections to that which focuses on the users of our libraries. We must develop a commitment to addressing the issues of societal, relevant health information. Using examples from medical education, this lecture makes the case for social justice librarianship. This lecture also presents a pathway for social justice medical librarianship, identifies fundamental roles and activities in these areas, and offers strategies for individual librarians, the Medical Library Association, and library schools for developing social justice education and outcomes. The lecture advocates for an understanding of and connection to social justice responsibilities for the medical library profession and ends with a call to go beyond understanding to action. The lecture emphasizes the lack of diversity in our profession and the importance of diversity and inclusion for achieving social justice. The lecture presents specific examples from some medical libraries to extend the social justice mindset and to direct outreach, collections, archives, and special collection services to expose previously hidden voices. If medical librarians are to remain relevant in the future, we must act to address the lack of diversity in our profession and use our information resources, spaces, and expertise to solve the relevant societal issues of today.
本讲座探讨了社会正义以及医学图书馆员在民主社会中可以发挥的作用。社会正义需要成为医学图书馆事业的核心，也是该专业的核心价值观。医学图书馆员必须树立新的职业定位：从关注我们自身和馆藏，转向关注图书馆用户的文化意识或文化认知。我们必须致力于解决与社会相关的健康信息问题。本讲座以医学教育为例，阐述了社会正义图书馆事业的必要性。本讲座还为社会正义医学图书馆事业指明了道路，确定了这些领域的基本角色和活动，并为个别图书馆员、医学图书馆协会和图书馆学校提供了制定社会正义教育和成果的策略。本讲座提倡了解和联系医学图书馆专业的社会正义责任，并呼吁从理解走向行动。本讲座强调了我们专业缺乏多样性，以及多样性和包容性对于实现社会正义的重要性。本讲座通过一些医学图书馆的具体实例，扩展了社会正义思维，并指导拓展服务、馆藏、档案和特藏服务，以揭示以前隐藏的声音。如果医学图书馆员要在未来保持相关性，我们必须采取行动，解决专业多样性不足的问题，并利用我们的信息资源、空间和专业知识来解决当今社会的相关问题。
